The Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology of Compiègne was born of the generosity of a local patron: Antoine Vivenel. Contractor and architect, he made his fortune in Paris during the reign of Louis Philippe. He assembled an important collection which then develops a taste for classical antiquity and the Renaissance. From 1839, he decided to offer all of this heritage in its hometown. Housed in a beautiful mansion of the late eighteenth century, the museum houses many treasures Vivenel Antoine, precious testimonies of the most brilliant civilizations of Europe and the long history of Compiegne, favorite residence of French kings. Vivenel its founding in 1839, assembled a superb collection of works of art that demonstrates his love of antiquity, the Renaissance and the art of his time. Exceptional in France, a fine collection of painted vases evokes ancient Greece. Limoges enamels, pottery of Palissy, Venetian glass, Italian majolica, Rhine stoneware, pewter Nuremberg recall the splendor of the European Renaissance. Finally accompanying paintings, sculptures and objets d'art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.